Apple has yet again upped its game with the announcement of iOS 17, with a plenty of new updates and discovers for iPhones users.
Apple revealed iOS 17 for your iPhone back at WWDC 2023 in June, but only for developer beta testers.
There’s a lot to get excited about here, from updates to Messages and FaceTime to a new app for journaling and glanceable information while your iPhone charges.
With rumors that iPhone 15 could be arriving in late September, it’s not a stretch to assume that iOS 17 will also arrive around then.
Device Compatibility
Notably, iOS 17 requires the A12 Bionic chip or newer. This means that the iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus – all of which were first released in 2017 – won’t get the update this year.
Here’s the full rundown of iOS 17 supported devices:
- iPhone XS and XS Max
- iPhone XR
- iPhone 11
- iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max
- iPhone 12 and 12 mini
- iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max
- iPhone 13 and 13 mini
- iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max
- iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max
- iPhone SE (2nd and 3rd gen)
- New features
“With iOS 17, we’ve made iPhone more personal and intuitive by deeply considering the features we all rely on every day,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering.
“Phone, FaceTime, and Messages are central to how we communicate, and this release is packed with updates we think our users are going to love.”
Contact Posters
iOS 17 brings Contact Posters to the Phone app, which allows you to customise your contact photos so they look similar to the wallpaper on your Lock Screen. This means that incoming calls look better than ever before with customisable fonts and colors. Contact Posters will also be available in all third-party calling apps.
Live voicemail
iOS 17 also brings Live Voicemail to the iPhone. This means you can see a real-time transcript as someone leaves a voicemail, with the ability to pick up the phone while they are in the process of doing so.
The Phone app will also instantly decline spam calls. Apple has made sure to focus on the privacy aspect of Live Voicemail, so the Neural Engine on your iPhone is handled on-device and is completely private.
New reactions
Also for FaceTime, Apple has added a variety of new Reactions. This includes things like hearts, balloons, fireworks, laser beams, and rain. These effects can be activated by certain gestures and are also compatible with third-party apps.
Namedrop and better Airdrop
iOS 17 also brings more functionality to AirDrop on your iOS device in a few ways, with the first allowing you to ‘tap’ another iPhone to share contact details.
This is called NameDrop, and it also works with Apple Watch. You can also use the same ‘tap’ gesture for SharePlay so you can watch movies, listen to music, or play a game easier than ever before.
The Music app
The Music app has been revamped with support for collaborative playlists and cross-fade (at long last). In CarPlay, the Music app now includes SharePlay support to let anyone in your car have a say in what’s currently playing (if you’re brave enough to allow such a thing).
Revamp of autocorrect
Updates to Autocorrect with what Apple are calling “a transformer language model” improves the experience and accuracy of typing on your iPhone.
You’ll now receive predictive text recommendations as you type making text entry faster than ever. Dictation also has more accuracy thanks to a new speech recognition model
StandBy
StandBy is one of the most notable changes for iPhone users this year. When you place your iPhone horizontally on a charger, it will show a new custom smart display style interface with glanceable widgets for things like the time, calendar, alarms, and more.
Journal
Apple also announced some new features for tracking your mental health. You can log how you’re feeling within the Health app and it will give you some helpful advice on what it’s calculated over a certain time.
There’s also a new app called Journal – which isn’t available in iOS 17 for now, but Apple says it’s going to be released later this year. If you’ve ever used Day One on iOS, this is essentially the first-party equivalent, allowing you to document your life and check in with how you’re feeling in your daily life.
More changes
New features for Private Browsing, including the ability to lock tabs behind Face ID or Touch ID.
Passwords and passkeys stored in iCloud Keychain can now be shared with friends and family.
Apple Maps is adding offline maps support and real-time availability information for electric car charging stations.
Screen Distance is a new feature in iOS 17 that Apple says will help reduce the risk of myopia for children by making sure kids aren’t holding their devices too close to their faces.
Siri can now be activated by simply saying “Siri,” rather than “Hey Siri.”
AirPods now offer Adaptive Audio, Personalized Volume, Conversation Awareness, and improvements to Automatic Switching and call controls.
The Photos app can now recognize cats and dogs as their own person. For instance, if you have two dogs named Blake and Ruby, the Photos app will automatically separate the pictures for each of them into their own albums.
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